A receptionist claims she was blind for months after having eyelashes fitted while still wearing contact lenses.
Lillie Barrett, 22, from Welling in Bexley, south-east London, began experiencing itching in her left eye after having a pair of £55 Russian eyelashes fitted while wearing contact lenses in November 2022.
After experiencing a watery eye overnight, she visited the pharmacy the next day and was given drops to soothe her red, swollen eye.
But two days later, when her eye began to swell and yellow dirt began to build up on her cornea, Lillie claims she lost all vision in her left eye.
Horrifying footage shows Lillie’s cornea turning a misty gray as she claims she became blind in this eye and couldn’t see in 3D with the other, and was later told she had developed a corneal ulcer.
Lillie Barrett, 22, from Welling, south-east London, bought an expensive pair of Russian eyelash extensions, but soon after she started experiencing itching in her left eye and even went temporarily blind.
Lillie was rushed to the emergency department at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, where an ophthalmologist told her she had developed a corneal ulcer.
Although the consultant was unable to determine a definitive cause of her eye infection, Lillie now believes it was caused by bacteria that came into contact with her contact lenses after getting her eyelashes done.
According to the NHS, a corneal ulcer is an open sore on the outer layer of the cornea that occurs when the surface is damaged and is said to be more common in contact lens wearers.
He is now warning other contact lens wearers to be careful when using monthly contact lenses and urging people to switch to daily disposable lenses as they are more hygienic.
Lillie said: ‘Six hours into my appointment my eye started to react and felt like something was scratching me, so I took out my contact lenses and put on my glasses.
‘Overnight my eye wouldn’t stop watering and I thought it was just my allergies or that I had contracted conjunctivitis because I had been around children recently.
‘I went to a pharmacy the next day and they told me it looked like conjunctivitis and they gave me some eye drops and I started using them.
‘My eye kept watering and started to swell and became very red.
Pictured above is the gruesome eye infection – a corneal ulcer believed to have been caused by Lillie’s contact lenses.
‘For about two days I left it because I thought it was conjunctivitis because I had yellow spots in my eye.
“This then stopped coming out of my eye and got stuck in my cornea and on the second or third day I lost all my vision. [in this eye].
“I was going to go to the doctor in my car, but then I realized I couldn’t because I didn’t have 3D vision. Everything looked flat because I couldn’t see with this eye.
‘At the hospital they told me it was a corneal ulcer, but they couldn’t tell me the exact reason why it happened.
‘Someone in the ophthalmology department told me I wouldn’t get my vision back unless I had surgery.
“I burst into tears because I was very surprised by what had happened.
‘My left eye caused my confidence to drop a lot because people looked at me strangely and I stopped going out as much as before because I was so upset about it.
‘I wear monthly contact lenses and apparently they can be more dangerous than daily contacts.
The glamorous receptionist now advises others to pay more attention to their eye care and gives up monthly contact lenses, which require strict maintenance.
‘After what happened, I still wear contact lenses, but I have now switched to daily contact lenses.
‘I would tell people that they should switch to daily contact lenses and not use monthly contact lenses as they don’t need to be cleaned, just throw them away after use. It’s not worth it after what I went through.
“I know the doctor couldn’t confirm the exact cause of my infection, but I think it was caused by my contacts.”
“If I had to give anyone advice it would be to be careful when wearing contact lenses and definitely go to the hospital first as I left it for two or three days before doing so.”
Although she has not regained her full eye health, Lillie is doing much better, but she is still an avid contact lens wearer and has made the switch to daily lenses and recommends that others do the same.
After being prescribed eye drops and painkillers, Lillie was discharged from the hospital, but had to return for check-ups until May 2023.
He claims his eye remained discolored for six months and says his vision gradually began to recover.
Despite this, Lillie says she still has not fully recovered sight in her left eye, almost a year and a half after the infection.
Lillie said: ‘My vision slowly started to recover after using the eye drops and having checks at the hospital.
‘My eye color was still very bad in January 2023 and you couldn’t see the black part of my pupil. My eye was like this for about six or seven months.
‘By April 2023, my eye color had returned quite a bit. You can hardly notice it unless you look very closely.
‘I can see a lot more now than I used to, but my vision is still bad.
‘I can see shadows and people when they are in front of me, but that’s only if I close one eye. If both eyes are open, it is more difficult to see.”
Lillie says she was offered surgery to help restore her vision, but initially turned it down after learning of the risks the operation could entail.
But after recently posting about the horror of her lens on TikTok, she says she might reconsider going under the knife as other users shared the surgery’s success stories.
Lillie said: “The surgery was to help me regain some of my vision by working on my cornea, but I didn’t have the surgery because they said there was a risk of my eye going back to square one.” [and I had been making progress with my sight].
“Now that I’ve seen people’s comments on TikTok about how the surgery worked really well for them, I think I would consider having it to get a little more of my vision back.”
